The present invention relates to packages for flexible products, especially medical products, wherein the package maintains the product in a desired configuration without kinking and allows for easy withdrawal of the product from the package.
The present invention further relates to methods of packaging flexible products using the packages according to the present invention.
For ease of explanation, the present invention will be described with respect to a medical catheter, although it will be recognized that the present invention is equally applicable to other flexible products, both in the medical field and other fields. Currently, flexible products, such as medical catheters, are often packaged in a two piece assembly including a plastic or paper tray, and a preformed pouch. The tray may have formed therein depressions or other means in which the catheter is fixed to maintain a desired configuration. Once the catheter is fixed to the tray, this assembly is inserted into the pouch and the pouch is sealed. Alternatively, the catheter may be simply inserted into a pouch without any other support.
Tray and pouch packages result in two pieces of waste, which is becoming more and more undesirable from the aspect of waste disposal. Further, in known packages, the tray must be specialized to include features to hold the catheter in place. Simple pouch packages have the disadvantage of not providing sufficient stability to the catheter during shipping and handling.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for improvements to packages for flexible products, such as medical catheters.